About

(Scroll down for the Curriculum Vitae)

STATEMENT

Life is told in stories. As an artist, I hope to translate and re-tell familiar stories while keeping a balance between discomfort and solace and humor. I am interested in the themes from American Vernacular art that arose during the Great Depression: suffering and joy, religion and disbelief, poverty and wealth, the burden of labor and the pride of accomplishment. I also explore human frailty and resilience, such as living with illness.

Ceramic artist Shino Kanzaki said that, “Everyone has their own task, and everyone has a responsibility to fulfill their task. My task is to create my own pieces. . . pieces which cannot be made by anyone else”. I attempt to fulfill my responsibility as an artist by bringing just enough humor to the work that the viewer has a chance to breathe.

Each new work of art starts as an empty theater stage that is set with props, lighting, characters, and ultimately with a performance. I see the narrative aspect of my work being performed by the characters for the audience. Therefore, I try to use images of real people as often as possible for the sake of authenticity.

By using digital technology along with traditional methods, I’m able to achieve a synthesis that could never be had any other way. In the end, I hope to make well-crafted pictures that cause the viewer to reconsider their first look and find their own story in the work.

Biography

Gregory Martens was born in 1959 in Milwaukee WI, and grew up in the rural lake town of Muskego WI. His father was a salesman and avid Fundamentalist Bible enthusiast. His mother was a factory worker, gardener, craftswoman, and country music enthusiast. During his childhood he traveled back and forth from the country to the city to visit Grandma and his older uncles and discovered the incredible early Mad Magazines. Hot Rod magazine provided those great T-shirt ads for monster driven car4s by Ed “Big Daddy” Roth and Roach studios. As a young teen Martens was attracted to the art section at the library and the “Northern Line” of Bosch, Brueghel, Schongauer, and especially Durer. Later, during the early 1970’s Martens discovered Underground comix, Robert Crumb, Rick Griffin, Victor Moscoso, and Robert Williams. “I saw tremendous similarities among all those “Black-Line” artists and realized they were all influenced by medieval manuscript painters in Europe.”

Gregory met Sharon, the love of his life, in college; they dropped out, got married, and raised a family of three. After many years as a salesman on the road, Martens became a cobbler in Wauwatosa WI where his whole family helped fix the shoes in their busy little shop. After ten years as a cobbler, at age 46, Martens was suddenly stricken with a very aggressive case of Bone Marrow Cancer, and given two years to live. Many surgeries ensued, two bone marrow transplants, months in the hospital, financial ruin, bankruptcy, and foreclosure. Nevertheless, he recovered from the cancer and went into remission.

Physically unable able to fix shoes, Martens went back to finish college in the Art Department at UW-Milwaukee. The harder he worked as an art student the more he recovered. He finished his BFA and stayed on to finish grad school and received his MFA in 2012. Now he spends his time working in his studio workshop called Hip Joint Press, and teaches Printmaking at UW-Milwaukee. Gregory and Sharon have three adult children and one granddaughter, and live in Wauwatosa WI.